Posted on 02/19/2006 10:02:48 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Fresh details of the crimes of Randy “Duke” Cunningham make clear why he has never cited the corrupting culture of Washington as an excuse for his behavior.
Cunningham, we now know, took to corruption with an enthusiasm and single-mindedness that are rare even by Washington standards.
His conduct over six years, as spelled out Friday by federal prosecutors seeking a maximum 10-year prison sentence, was unflinchingly mercenary, especially as it pertained to his love of extravagant living and expensive toys. Once, he demanded the use of a private jet to take him yacht shopping, with no intention of paying for either.
But for all the instances of free dinners and French commodes, what stands out most about the Republican ex-congressman in the government sentencing memorandum is his insatiability.
However much Cunningham had, he hungered for more.
That $2.4 million in bribes he took from friendly defense contractors – those who were benefiting from his influence in two powerful congressional committees – was amassed through sheer persistence. If Cunningham wasn't chipping away at them with demands for more cash, he was engineering circumstances in which they could come to his assistance by paying his bills.
He transformed the genteel hobby of collecting antiques into a compulsion. Repeated shopping excursions with one contractor netted him more furniture and rugs than could fit comfortably into his Virginia condominium.
Even a “bribe menu” that Cunningham developed to simplify transactions – with each additional million dollars in federal contracts netting him either $25,000 or $50,000 in bribes – apparently did not relieve the bribing party of additional obligations.
A forensic psychiatrist hired by Cunningham's defense team attributes this relentless pursuit of wealth to his “sense of grandiosity” and “entitlement,” and his recklessness to his sense of “invulnerability.”
These “defense mechanisms,” the psychiatrist wrote to the sentencing judge, were instilled in Cunningham by the Navy when he was a fighter pilot.
Yet as the government sentencing memo depicts him, Cunningham has been on the offense for some time.
Prosecutors say there is no disputing that he “was calling the shots” at every stage of a criminal enterprise that included money laundering, tax evasion, witness tampering, fabricating evidence and widespread, persistent bribery.
“Cunningham was not only the central object of the conspiracy; he also made the critical decisions,” they wrote.
“It was Cunningham, not his co-conspirators, who decided which co-conspirator would obtain which defense contract. It was Cunningham who decided what sum of money would be required for his official actions. It was Cunningham who decided how payment of that money would be concealed.”
Cunningham has cooperated with prosecutors since pleading guilty Nov. 28 to charges of tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery and defrauding the public of honest service. U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns is scheduled to sentence Cunningham on March 3 in San Diego.
While he is arguing for a shorter prison term than that recommended by prosecutors, Cunningham presumably provided information that is contained in the sentencing memo's descriptions of his crimes.
Even in their narrow legal presentation, prosecutors illustrate the obsessive nature of Cunningham's quest for enrichment.
Take the case of a 1999 Chevy Suburban that Cunningham purchased in 2003 from defense contractor Mitchell Wade for $10,000, well below its Blue Book value.
A senior member of Cunningham's staff found out about the transaction and, according to the sentencing memo, “was deeply troubled by the sales price and the seller.”
“When the staff member raised the matter with the congressman, Cunningham furiously slammed his hand on his desk, twice, and yelled at the staffer to 'Stay the f--- out of my personal business,' ” the document reads.
Cunningham staffers attempted to conceal the transaction by altering the vehicle's title registration application to reflect a sales price of $18,000, according to the memo.
They then asked Cunningham to make up the difference, which he refused to do.
This was not the only time Cunningham subjected his subordinates to his misconduct, or that he dug in his heels when found out.
Persian rugs were delivered to his district office, and a staff member delivered a cash-stuffed envelope to Cunningham and saw invoices and sales records that cried out bribery. This employee confronted him with the evidence and demanded that he resign. Cunningham thought it over before deciding he would rather stay.
At the same time Cunningham was refusing his staff's request to pay Wade a fair price for the SUV, the congressman was directing Wade to purchase tens of thousands of dollars in antiques, which were delivered to Cunningham's condo.
His penchant for fine furniture evidently began in November 2001, when he asked Wade to take him shopping.
The congressman picked purchases totaling approximately $12,000, according to the memo, but “when it came time to prepare the bill and pay for the antiques, Cunningham wandered to a different area of the store.” Once the bill was paid, however, he returned to the counter and provided delivery instructions to his condominium.
In the car on his way back from the shopping trip, Cunningham expressed his appreciation for Wade's willingness to bribe him, according to the memo, and told Wade that he would make him “somebody.”
After this “green light” from the congressman, according to the memo, government contracts for Wade's company, MZM Inc., went from less than $1 million a year to tens of millions of dollars.
Cunningham's antique shopping continued for years, with Wade's assistance, until his condominium was “literally stuffed with furniture” given to him as bribes, the memo states.
And when the congressman was ready to ship the booty to its intended destination – his ill-gotten Rancho Santa Fe mansion – Cunningham wanted still more from Wade.
The contractor was instructed to pay to ship the antiques, and the rest of Cunningham's household goods, to California. When they arrived, Cunningham brazenly signed the packing slip as an employee of Wade's company.
Cunningham showed similar audacity in the case of the Kelly C, one of his yachts.
He purported to sell it to different co-conspirators at different times, according to the prosecution memo. In both cases, they made large cash payments to Cunningham, but neither time was a contract drawn up or title transferred. Cunningham retained possession.
“Significantly, just before this investigation began in May 2005, Cunningham informed the Coast Guard that he wanted title for the Kelly C to be reissued in his name,” according to the sentencing memo. “He also began making preparations to bring the vessel back to his yacht club in Washington, D.C.”
Cunningham used a similar ploy with the used Rolls-Royce he bought in 2002 with $10,000 given to him by Wade. Wade also paid thousands of dollars to restore the vehicle, which was housed in the congressional parking garage, and then “purchased” it from Cunningham for even more money, though he never received title to the vehicle.
As the noose began to tighten around Cunningham last year, he falsified evidence and tampered with witnesses in an attempt to obstruct the federal investigation, according to the sentencing memo.
In this endgame stage, Cunningham tried to convince an antique dealer that she had watched him give Wade $35,000 in cash before Wade purchased antiques for him. The dealer said she had witnessed no such thing.
He also sent a belated $16,500 check to a rug dealer who had been paid by Wade, concocting a story about having been unable to find an invoice when the rugs arrived in his Escondido office. The rug dealer told investigators that Wade had clearly paid for the rugs, and that they were shipped with packing labels that carry the store's address.
Cunningham, according to the memo, “then preposterously suggested that he had previously sent a check for the rugs that had been returned because he had the wrong address.”
The federal investigation continues into the dealings of the contractors and others involved with Cunningham.
Scumbag should be crushing rocks soon at Leavenworth.
Hurry up get the case over, stick him in jail and GWB can pardon him on his last day in office. The guy afterall is a war hero and with these charges has destroyed his chances of ever being elected again.
*** WARNING *** knee jerk reaction on its way *** WARNING ***
Did he steal national security documents and destroy them?
Sandy Burglar is walking around free and will receive top level security clearance again in 2 years. Why should anyone else be in jail...except for murder?
Cunningham gets little or no good character references from the officers who served with him in the military. Many of them pegged him as trouble from the getgo!
A forensic psychiatrist hired by Cunningham's defense team attributes this relentless pursuit of wealth to his “sense of grandiosity” and “entitlement,” and his recklessness to his sense of “invulnerability
This is the way most politicians feel and think.
I met this guy when I was in the Navy.....he was an egotistical a$$hole then and I told him so to his face....
Ten years may not be enough for his disgraceful conduct.
How come all this stuff is coming out so late. Dontcha suppose that the nitwit press in Washington knew all about this but were too meek to delve into it?
Duke should have gotten into cattle futures and real estate. Much safer.
Then after Vietnam becomes a negative, Duke disappears back into the Navy as a fighter jock, but not a very good officer. Connections get him a Pentagon job, where he runs into some of the same people who years earlier were giving him a 'Lewinsky' in front of cameras, but wouldn't be seen with him or return his calls when he is back in D.C.
The guy writes his autobiography, and stoops so low as to be selling them out of the back of his car on the Miramar base. He's got no friends, because by now, he is a major a-hole living of past glory. He still thinks he's the greatest pilot ever, but getting waxed regularly by fleet pilots in the Tomcat, and even worse when he's instructing in -126.
He does such a poor job as a leader, he cant get beyond CDR and has to quit and join National U. as dean of their flight school. A total embarrassment. But then, out of the blue, Republicans need a face, and select Duke to run for Congress on his war-record.
He starts believing the old-glory stuff all over again, now that he has constituents kissing his ass, and the only problem he has now, is that he still doesn't have the cash to run with the big boys.
You know the rest.
What other species of vice did this specimen exhibit? Drugs? Little boys? Little girls? Mistress Refulgio The Whip Artiste? The finest cocaine? Ah politicians, in America, in 2006 A.D.!
Trust me, I do not condone what he did in any way, shape or form.
If the same maggots that got Cunningham and Abramoff ever find the testosterone to go after the "culture of corruption" in the DemocRATic Party, there won't be any politicians left in D.C. Unfortunately, Dems are "untouchable" and the lawyers will never go after them.
No pardon. The guy is a big league criminal selling government contracts for personal gain.
Leavenworth should be where all of the corrupt politicians / law enforcement / judges are sent, not some cushy tennis and golf quasi club med minimum security holding pen.
(I should have checked my blood pressure before and after typing this)
I ran into this guy only a couple years ago. He was drunk and telling people in a bar that he flew test flights in the Super Hornet and still flew with Top Gun on a regular basis.
What a pathetic has been. The bribery scandal is just an extension of some of the shady deals he pulled while in the Navy. Bigger numbers, same lack of integrity.
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